Rajballabh Sen

Raja Rajballabh Sen
Maharaja and Diwan of Dhaka
Born	c. 1707 Beel Deonia, Bikrampur
Died	c. July 1763
Father	Krishnajiban Sen (Majumdar)
Religion	Hinduism

Raja Rajballabh Sen (Bengali: রাজবল্লভ সেন; c. 1707 – 1763) was a Bengali treasurer, revenue administrator,^[1][2] zamindar and Mughal official who served as the diwan of Dhaka^[3][4] and later as the faujdar of Monghyr in the 18th century.^[5]

Background and political career

Rajballabh Sen was born circa 1707 in a village called Beel Deonia.^[6] A Baidya^[7][8][9] from Bikrampur (now in Munshiganj, Bangladesh), Sen commenced his career as a muharrir (clerk or scribe) around 1734^[10] in the land revenue department.^[11][6]

Sen's father, Krishnajiban Sen,^[6][11] was himself a muharrir who later became a majumdar.^[11] While his family had typically held lower- to mid-ranking offices in the Mughal government, Sen's fluency in Persian, ambitious demeanour, and sheer competence meant he rose through the ranks rapidly, and became the head of the land revenue department. Soon after, around 1756, he was appointed diwan of Dhaka.^[12][13][6] He used his political position to establish connections with some of Bengal's most influential people at the time,^[12] and to acquire wealth and vast swathes of landed estate across Dhaka, Barisal, Faridpur, and Tipperah (now Tripura).^[11][14] The seat of his estate lay in Rajnagar,^[11][14] to the south of Dhaka, and became a centre of architectural excellence, characterized by large mansions and temples.^[12][6][10] Sen, by this point a maharaja, was also appointed to the post of deputy governor of Bihar around 1760.^[15][12] His town Rajnagar was eventually submerged by Kirtinasha, a channel of the Padma river in 1867.^[5][10][6]

Social initiatives

Rajballabh Sen is noted for having attempted to promote and normalize the practice of widow remarriage in Bengal.^[10] In 1757, when his daughter became widowed at a young age, he decided to consult pandits from southern and eastern India, who granted that widow remarriage was consistent with Hindu philosophy.^[16] However, when Sen tried to convince Krishnachandra Roy, the orthodox raja of Nadia at the time who was influential for Hindu religious practices, and his priests, that the prohibition on widow remarriage be overturned, Roy fervently opposed him.^[16] With his opposition, Sen failed to achieve the change he sought.^[17] Nevertheless, his vision did not go in vain, as Hindu widow remarriage would go on to be legalized about a century after his death.^[10]

Sen is also remembered for working towards the welfare of his community, the Baidyas. The particular section of the community that he hailed from, the Bangaja Baidyas, had long lost their right to wear the sacred thread, unlike the Rarhi Baidyas.^[18] Therefore, he invited Brahmins from Benaras, Kannauj, Nabadwip and other regions with expertise in Nyaya Shastra to reinstitute^[19] the right of the Bangaja Baidyas to wear the sacred thread. All of them adjudicated in his favour, with ceremonial costs running to five lakhs.^[10][12]

Conflict with Siraj-ud-Daulah and death

Rajballabh Sen is perhaps most notorious for his association with Mir Jafar, Ghaseti Begum, and the British East India Company. He supported Ghaseti Begum and Mir Jafar in their power struggle against the then Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah.^[20] Siraj, who fervidly detested the British, grew suspicious of Sen, then diwan of Dhaka, and believed he had embezzled a large sum of money.^[11][21] Displeased, Siraj sent his troops to Rajnagar in hopes of arresting members of his family and seizing his questionably accumulated property. However, by then, Krishna Das, Sen's son, had already escaped to Calcutta with his wealth, and gained the asylum of its governor, Roger Drake.^[4][22][23]

After the British ultimately emerged victorious in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Sen grew closer to them and started conspiring with them.^[13] Sen's partnership with the British, however, was short-lived. In July 1763, Mir Qasim, who had succeeded Mir Jafar as the Nawab of Bengal, suspected him of treachery; at his orders, Sen and his eldest son^[a] were executed by drowning.^{[11][14][12][10]}

Notes

1. Whether Sen's eldest son was executed alongside him is disputed.

References

1. Chatterjee, Partha (2012). The Black Hole of Empire - History of a Global Practice of Power. Princeton University Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780691152011.
2. Leach, Edmund Ronald; Mukherjee, Soumyendra Nath (1970). Elites in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 47.
3. Ganguli, Samir (2023). The Zamindars and Nawabs of Bengal. BlueRose Publishers. p. 111.
4. Sengupta, Nitish (July 19, 2011). Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib. Penguin Books. p. 191. ISBN 9788184755305.
5. Sengupta, Nitish (July 19, 2011). Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib. Penguin Books. p. 23. ISBN 9788184755305.
6. "BI/GRU: In Search of Rajnagar: Part 1". Retrieved 2025-09-20.
7. Census of India, 1901 - Volume 1. p. 186.
8. Islam, Sirajul (1992). History of Bangladesh, 1704-1971: Social and Cultural History. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. p. 58.
9. Chatterjee, Partha (2012). The Black Hole of Empire - History of a Global Practice of Power. Princeton University Press. p. 245. ISBN 9781400842605.
10. Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (1947). Maharaja Rajballabh: A Critical Study Based on Contemporary Records. University of Calcutta.
11. "Rajballabh, Raja - Banglapedia". en.banglapedia.org. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
12. Chatterjee, Kumkum (2010). "Scribal elites in Sultanate and Mughal Bengal". Indian Economic and Social History Review. 47 (4): 454–472. doi:10.1177/001946461004700402.
13. Ali, Muhammad Mohar (1988). History of the Muslims of Bengal (1st ed.). Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh. p. 7.
14. Curley, David L. (2008). Poetry and History: Bengali Maṅgal-kābya and Social Change in Precolonial Bengal. Chronicle Books. ISBN 9788180280313.
15. McLane, John R. (July 25, 2002). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780521526548.
16. Vidyasagar, Ishwar Chandra (2012). Hindu Widow Marriage. Translated by Hatcher, Brian A. Columbia University Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780231526609.
17. Pruthi, R.K. (2004). Brahmo Samaj and Indian Civilization. Discovery Publishing House. p. 43. ISBN 9788171417919.
18. Sanyal, Durga Chandra (1908). Banglar Samajik Itihas [The Social History of Bengal] (in Bengali).
19. Gupta, Umesh Chandra (1911). Jati Tattva Baridhi [A Treatise on the Essence of Caste] (in Bengali). p. 151.
20. HT, Team (2018-01-12). "Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah: The Last Independent Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa". Heritage Times. Retrieved 2025-09-21.
21. Ganguli, Samir (2023). The Zamindars and Nawabs of Bengal. BlueRose Publishers. p. 311.
22. Lawford, James Philip (1978). Britain's Army in India: From Its Origins to the Conquest of Bengal. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9780049540200.
23. Sen, Ranjit (March 14, 2019). Calcutta in Colonial Transition. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780429576119.